Telecom operator China Unicom today said its (Capex) capital expenditure reached $3.5 billion or 21.58 billion yuan in the first half of 2014.

CHINA UNICOM NETWORK EXPANSION

In the first half of 2014, China Unicom expanded its 4G and 3G base stations by 84,000 to 491,000. The maximum downlink speed reaches 150 Mbps for its LTE network, 42 Mbps for its DC-HSPA+ network and 21 Mbps for the whole HSPA+ network.

In addition, China Unicom, which competes with China Mobile and China Telecom, said it accelerated the construction of fiber optic network, and its broadband access ports reached 124.896 million, of which 73.8 percent are FTTH/B.

China Unicom further expanded the coverage of packet transport network, and the load-carrying capability for high-speed data services was further enhanced.

CHINA UNICOM REVENUE

First half revenues increased 3.6 percent to $24.27 billion or 149.6 billion yuan, said China Unicom.

China Unicom, the country’s second-biggest wireless carrier, said first-half net income rose 26 percent to 6.7 billion yuan ($1.09 billion) as sales from its mobile 3G and 4G businesses jumped by a third.

Its total mobile subscriber base increased by 14.02 million to 295 million in the first half of 2014, of which, mobile broadband subscribers rose 40.8 percent, accounting for 47.7 percent of total mobile subscribers. Mobile broadband ARPU reached 68.7 yuan, said China Unicom.

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